The life and times of my natural, crazy, coily hair as we both buck the creamy crack for good!

Archive for July, 2010

As the summer semester draws to a close here at my school, I’m becoming more and more aware of how long I’ve been transitioning. Tomorrow will be the beginning of month #17! I’m excited and I can’t wait to see what this month has in store for myself and my coils. Here’s what I plan to do:

Do my first REAL henna treatment. Last night I was just too tired, but I KNOW it’s going to happen sometime next week!

Finally review the AfroVeda products I have been using for styling and conditioning purposes (I’ve been using this brand for a minute!)

Show how castor oil has done wonders for my mom’s hair (I’m so inconsistent with it, but she lives by it and her hair looks wonderful)

Do posts on Ayuervedic hair remedies (something I’ve been interested in for a few months)

Do posts on natural hair and confidence.

Write the sequel post to the ArtKid date story (hint: it may become an ongoing saga!)

I know I’m going to do a couple of posts later on today… but I just wanted to record my August goals for this blog on my page.

So yesterday I was incredibly bored after class and decided to visit one of my favorite blogs, Natural Chica, to see what she’s been doing with her hair out here in Atlanta. Turns out, she’d gone to this Indian grocery store called Patel Brother Brothers and scored, among other things, some Jamila henna!!!

Yes, caca is your friend...

Now, I must give you a little background on why this excited me so. I’ve been a LUSH caca (yes “caca” as in “no shit hair color”) bar user for the past 3 months, but only because I couldn’t find henna on the ground and I hate ordering it. As a matter of fact, I hate ordering most things online just because I’m an instant-gratification type of gal. I wanna pay for it one second, and be holding it in my hands the next. I guess that’s just how I roll. Anywho, I’ve been enjoying the conditioning and strengthening effects of the LUSH caca bars all of this time, but knew that I could get better and more potent results if I would just go ahead and purchase some henna online.

… but I was NOT paying 7 bucks a box for that isht, especially since it would surely take more than one box to do my head. THEN pay shipping on top of all that? Oh effs no… no sir… NO SIR!

As you can imagine, I was thrilled to find that there was a store, in Atlanta, in which I could purchase Jamila henna! Finally, I can henna my hair without having to seek out a Macy’s or a LUSH store and buying a $24 (tax included) bar of henna! While I was in Patel Brothers, I also managed to get my hands on some Brahmi powder, Amla powder, Dabur Jasmine Hair Oil. All in all, I bought 300 grams of Jamila brand henna for $4.47, 300 ml of Jasmine Oil for $3.99, and one box each of Amla and Brahmi powder for $1.49 apiece. Just in case you don’t know… those prices are fantastic. Patel Brothers is kind of a big deal.

Anywho, I am currently in my dorm room looking up recipes for my very first real henna, which will be this weekend. I’m still trying to hunt down my camera’s charger so that maybe… just maybe… I can do a pictorial for all of you out there who may be interested. Just know that I’m very excited to be trying this for the first time (why do I always do something radical to my hair right before finals? Hmmm….). I’ve got honey, henna, Brahmi, Amla, coconut oil and milk, and lemon juice. Let’s see what we can mix up for Friday night (since I need to spend time avoiding ArtKid and his incredible kisses of doom).

So… myself and this man that I have known for a long time decided to step out this weekend and go get fish tacos out of boredom. Neither of us were really looking to do anything… we just thought “Well, I’m hungry… and he’s hungry… and we both have nothing to do so… fish tacos at the Taqueria on Howell Mill!”

Taqueria Del Sol... best fish tacos ever!

And I was wearing my signature braid-and-curl with a bang flopped over the front of my face, wearing my favorite orange shirt (orange is my favorite color, BTW) and rocking some freshly painted toe nails, not to mention moisturized ankles. I had already run that day so I had my little “runner’s high” and no stress to boot! When I say I was feeling good… I was looking and feeling like a billion bucks. If BP felt the way I felt, they’d take all that money they have to pay in fines, get it converted to one dollar bills, and make it rain on the capitol. Yeah, I said it.

Back to the story:

So I went ahead and decided to hang with him… whom I’ve always thought of as a semi-homie. We will refer to him on this blog as ArtKid (he’s a graphic designer in my area).

Music... oh I should've seen it coming...

Well, ArtKid and I had a great time at the Taqueria and decided to go chill at his place. We get there, start playing some music, and spend the whole time just talking about things… just any old thing! We talked about high school, college, engineering versus art, The Boondocks (pause)… you name it. We actually sat there from 10 pm to 4 am and just talked without the TV being on or anything!

So, of course, after those 6 hours I naturally had to pee. I mean, I drink a lot of water and I’m not trying to be cute and hold it. Hellz no. As a matter of fact, the “trying to be cute taken to the extreme” thing is something for another post, but I hope it will suffice to say that I find myself incapable of trying to be one of those cute, salad-eating chicks. What the hell do I look like eating a salad? I’m a carnivore, damnit.

Once again, I digress.

Anywho, I go in the bathroom, do my business, and come out to the couch. Naturally, we’re both tired and he’s had a shot (when we first got there… but still) and he drove so… I’m not trying to go back to the dorms just now. Fulton County will lock you up in a heartbeat if you even look suspicious… and doesn’t everyone look suspicious at 4 am? So we both laid down with a line of pillows in between us and went to sleep, although, after that night, I really wasn’t sure just how I felt about him.

Four hours later, I’m waking up and rolling over only to find ArtKid staring at me, which is very startling at 8am. What’s even more startling is that one of his hands is on my waist and the other is in my hair, not to mention that the line of pillows is nowhere to be found. He says to me, “I love it that your hair is natural. It fits your personality more than when you had straight hair.”

Hmmm…

WOW!

Wiping sleep out of my eyes, I think of the smoothest thing I know to say in moments like these: “I have to pee.”

So I get up and half sprint to the bathroom and immediately look at my hair, only to find that I’d slept pretty wildly and my hair indicated this fact. This, combined with ArtKid’s pulling and twirling while waiting for me to wake up had wreaked havoc on my once-cute style, leaving it stretched and only curly on the ends. Being that I always carry an emergency headband in my pocket, I did something I had never done before: I grabbed that headband, stretched it to the max, looped it twice around my head, and flat twisted my bangs into a side sweep… and as the headband migrated to the back of my head, I realized that I had done what I thought was impossible: I had made a puff.

And y’all, my puff was bigger than Kanye’s ego (the intangible one, that is).

With my new-found hairstyle firmly in place, I walked back into his room and sat down on the side of the bed, only to

mmhmmm... yup...

have him crawl across to where I was and drag me into the center… all to play with my hair! He continued with the compliments and hair-play for about 10 minutes (aka a long time), then looked me in my eyes and kissed me. I did not know what to say… so I didn’t say anything. I just know that I enjoyed that kiss (although I shouldn’t have) and I’ve been rocking my puff ever since.

Sidenote: ArtKid and I are very similar in personality, music preference, and interests… hmmm… But there’s a twist to this story… that’ll just have to wait for a bit.

Have you ever wanted to try all of those elusive, wonder products only offered on the web, but been reluctant to pay shipping and handling just to wait to get it?

Well, if you are in the Atlanta area, you can now get some of your favorite brands on the ground!

Girl: Say WWWHHHAAATTTT?

Sage NaturalCeuticals!

SuperCoils: Girl, yes!

Nestled in cozily between two other random boutiques on Walker Street is the best (and I do mean the best) place in Atlanta to get natural hair, skin, and home products. Sage NaturalCeuticals, owned by a wonderful, bubbly natural named Cindy, offers the best of Uncle Funky’s Daughter, Komaza Care, Donna Marie, Bee Mine, AfroVeda, Darcy’s Botanicals, Hamadi, and more! It’s a truly wonderful shop, with all of the sweet aromas and soft R&B music inside. I would encourage all of those who want these products on the ground for their regular price (or 15% off for college students) to go to Sage NaturalCeuticals anytime Wednesday through Sunday, noon to seven, and give Cindy some patronage. Your hair, as well as your wallet, will love you for it.

Hey guys! I know it’s been a bit since I posted but it’s been quite a week to say the least.

Anywho, I was doing well on the PJ tip until about two weeks ago, when a trip down the hair care aisle in Target derailed all of my progress and hard work. There I was, just minding my own business when out of the corner of my eye I saw a beige bottle right above a sale sign. Lo and behold, peoples, it was Aveeno Nourish + Moisturize Conditioner!!!

The Aveeno brand itself has been very close to my heart since my itchy, ashy beginnings as child with eczema in the late (late late like I-don’t-even-claim-to-be-an-80’s-baby-late) 1980s, following Hurricane Hugo. Affectionately (not really) dubbed “Scaly Skins” by a childhood foe, a young SuperCoils relied on the magic of Aveeno oatmeal baths and creams to soothe away the itchies and melt my scales into “normal people skin”…

Fast forward to the 20-year-(and a half)-old SuperCoils, in college, looking to re-up on her conditioner stash, caught completely off-guard on the hair aisle in Target by a beige bottle of creamy goodness. You guys, I don’t even know what happened. One minute, I was in Target, my hand outstretched in the general direction of the bottle; the next, I was in my dorm room, rifling desperately through a red and white plastic bag for my new homie. Ugh… I feel like such a crackhead.

Aveeno, why are you so confused? You KNOW you're a styler... why don't you just face the facts?

Price: about 5 bucks for 10.5 fluid ounces (not bad at all)

Purpose: Rinse-out Conditioner (or so I thought)

Consistency: creamy; very thick, but easy to spread

Color: creamy white-ish beige… a lot lighter than the bottle

Smell: fresh, pleasant, oatmeal scent (very much like the lotions)

Now for the juicy stuff:

I initially put this product on my dry, straightened hair for about 10 minutes before my co-wash session (it was fun to watch my hair curl back up) and washed it out, only to receive lack-luster results. This does not compete as a wash out conditioner, and it’s detangling abilities are barely up to par. As a matter of fact, the only true benefit I saw from it was curl definition, and what does that matter without moisture? I walked out of the shower looking sad… had I just wasted another 5 bucks on another crappy conditioner?

Surprisingly, no. As a wash-out, this conditioner is, well, a wash-out… but as a leave-in/styler… this stuff is the bomb! While sitting “Indian-style” in front of my trusty dorm mirror immediately after washing my hair, I got the idea to use this stuff as a styler in order to provide hold to my braid-n-curl. This may have been the best idea I’ve had all week! The Aveeno went on smooth and soft, and provided my hair with loads of curl definition! I mean this stuff was amazing! I proceeded to use it on half of my head, let my braid-n-curl set up overnight, then took my rods out in the morning to see soft, silky, shiny braids with MUCH less shrinkage than normal. As a matter of fact, as I sit here looking in the mirror at my hair, I’d say my hair hasn’t shrunk much at all today! I think I love this conditioner… but only as a styler. Let’s keep it real Aveeno; just embrace what you truly are and stop being such a poser (lol).

The infamous hair idol, Wanakee, was once quoted as saying that the thing that robs our hair of moisture… is our environment.

Dang, for real?

I mean, it makes sense, but then how do I keep my hair moisturized and healthy in order to maintain length?

This is where protective styling comes in to play!

Hair grows from being pushed out of the scalp, therefore making the ends of your hair the most fragile. Protective styling is a method by which you protect those fragile, old, arthritic (let me stop) ends, tucking them away in styles that keep them off of your collar, shirt, or out of the air (especially in those windy dry months of winter). Another method involves stretching the hair by plaiting/ twisting it up so as to reduce breakage caused by detangling shrunken hair. This, along with proper sealing and moisturizing, should allow you to hold on to more of your length! If you don’t have enough hair to touch your collar, then just stretch it out to reduce breakage due to detangling. This can be done by banding, bunning, twisting, bantu-knotting, braiding,wigs, weaves (when done properly), etc… And if you think protective styling can’t be cute, hit up youtube and think again!

Do any of y’all remember way back (maybe 2 weeks ago) when I finally “scratched” the BC itch by going to a local natural salon “Too Groovy” for a free consultation? Well, I went back for my first appointment last Thursday and got my hair straightened and trimmed.

I will not name the stylists who did my hair because I don’t want to hurt her business, but she burned my head!! Right in the back, at the nape of my neck. I actually picked a scab out of there this weekend. WTF? I haven’t had one of those since my perm days!

I won’t be going back there. I think it’s safe to say I don’t recommend her (the salon as a whole is pretty nice though, so I’d give them a try… just maybe without heat).

All of that aside, I got a very nice cut. My hair is now even, and the shortest it’s ever been. I have yet to wet it so I guess I won’t find out just how much relaxed hair I still have until then, but I’m guessing there’s not much left at all.

It’s also a sure bet that I’m going back to my old stylist for any future hair cut/ straightening services I may need. I’m shooting her an email as we speak.